Outcast
by Mollymog
Summary: (AU) An outcast. That's what he was, look at the mark on his right hand if you don't believe me. He was exiled for befriending the beasts, training them, RIDING them. Why did he do this? Because this dragon -this supposed BEAST- had given him something he had longed for, for a long time -a friend, a companion, a source of freedom... a brother.
1. Disclaimer

**I DO NOT OWN:**

 **.Merida or anyone from Brave**

 **.Brave**

 **.Hiccup or anyone from How to Train Your Dragon / Riders of Berk / Defenders of Berk / Race to the Edge / The book franchise**

 **.HTTYD / ROB /DOB / RTTE / TBF**

 **.Jack or anyone from Rise of the Guardians**

 **.ROTG**

 **.Rapunzel or anyone from Tangled**

 **.Tangled**

 **.Anyone from Frozen**

 **.Frozen**

 **.Dunbroch / Corona / Berk / Burgess / Arrendelle**

 **.The Barbaric Archipelago, although that would be cool. Owning an Archipelago, anyway where were we?**

 **THEY ALL BELONG TO DISNEY, DREAMWORKS & CRESSIDA COWELL RESPECTIVELY.**


	2. Chapter 1

Hiccup stood there in the middle of the kill ring -funny thing actually, it's not just used to kill dragons, who knew right?- his head hung in what the Vikings thought to be shame but they were wrong, dead wrong; Hiccup's head hung in anger, afraid if he looked anyone in the eye he would probably snap, hell, even with the shackles he had around his wrists, the look alone would probably be enough to kill.

He was angry at everyone that surrounding him, giving the boy angry glowers and others were even growling to let them in there to have a go at him, angry at the fact that no one cared until something big happened to him, be it killed a dragon or was thrown off a cliff.

'No one had cared when I said I had shot down the dragon,' Hiccup thought to himself bitterly, 'so why now all of a sudden? I get it it's a big shock "Useless trained a dragon" but after that it's just another screw up, I screwed up my chance of killing the dragon, he hadn't even done any damage, well I guess he did break a few trees on his tumble down, but Astrid does that too!'

His attention moved from his feet to said girl, it was her fault he was like this in the middle of the entire village, hands bound behind his back; she had come after him the day he planned to fly away after he was selected to kill the monstrous nightmare. She had found out about Toothless and had run off to tell on the chief like a good little Viking, they had tried to follow her but when she put her mind to it she could be very stealthy and, even above ground, he couldn't spot her until they had reached the village where he had tried to fly back but was too slow at turning before he was flung down with the force of the bola threw at him by his father, now here he is, waiting for his punishment.

The chief stood up from his throne and raised his hand, ordering silence, which everyone obeyed but there was still some grumbles here and there, mostly from his uncle and cousin. He eyed the boy in the ring and Hiccup, feeling his stare, lifted his head to meet his father's with one as cold as the stone floor he was standing on.

"Do you, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, understand the high treason that you have done towards the village and your chief, your father?"

'Sure as hell didn't act like a father to me' he thought to himself as he nodded once, knowing that if you talk without being asked, it's pretty much instant death, "and do you understand the punishments for your actions?" Hiccup shook his head left to right once. Stoick hesitated a bit before continuing his speech, "You will have a choice, you either kill the dragon now or we kill both of you and if your dragon escapes, then just you. But before you choose you have to answer the question we're all wondering"

'How did I train the dragon?' he thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Why did you not kill the beast when you had the chance?"

Any self-control seemed to have snapped within him as Hiccup stared his father in the eye, "You want to know why I didn't do it? It's because I couldn't, no I wouldn't kill a dragon! I didn't do it because he looked as frightened as I was," he seemed to calm down now, "I looked at him and I saw myself." Hiccup looked to have finished his speech, but no, he hadn't even started yet. "I set him free because I wouldn't kill him, just like he wouldn't kill me when he had the chance. I learned from him, trained him, rode him. His fin was ripped off when I shot him down during the last raid so I built him a new one and we did what I've never done with anyone since I was seven years old, we bonded! He gave me what I've always longed for since I was left by everyone in the village: a friend, a companion... a brother." he breathed out slowly before looking to the rest of the village, "You have no idea what you've put me through these past eight years! You've insulted me, beaten me, publically humiliated me Thor knows how many times! It was like I was homesick for a place that didn't even exist! You put me in this dark place and I was stuck there until Toothless came into my life! He showed me that I have something, someone to live for. He gave me light in my dark place and I found out that home is with him! And don't you ever dare call him a monster or a beast because the only monsters here are you!" he shouted out everything he had bottled up for the last eight years.

He now had tears of anger and hatred threatening to spill, "You try walking in my shoes. You try being insulted where ever you go. You try being publically humiliated by the people who were once your best friends and by the man who used to hug you just because! I bet you, you wouldn't even last a week before you try killing yourself like I have many times!" He couldn't stop the tears streaming down his cheeks now, "I didn't do it because he's my best friend, he's the most intelligent creature I've ever stumbled across, and this may not sound very manly or Viking-like but I love him, he's the only one I have to live for so if you want to kill him, you'll have to kill me too."

"We have considered your argument and, as you are well aware, you are an outcast," Hiccup gloomily looked at his right hand where a mark had been burned into his skin -the mark of a traitor. It was his father's chief seal with an arrow going through the dragon's head, "so next to nowhere will let you in, but if you are so sure all you need is your dragon," Hiccup rose his head so it was now looking at the chief, "we will let you live but you and your dragon will be exiled from Berk." Shouts of disagreement were echoed around the ring but the boy droned them out as the door holding his friend was opened and his bounds were cut loose. As soon as the doors opened Toothless bounced out of them to his human's opened arms. "You have an hour to pack before we change our minds," his father threatened.

Hiccup sprinted out of the ring, Toothless hot on his tail. He ran up the hill holding the chief's house, too caught up in his time quickly running out to care about the loss of his breath. He picked up a few satchels and filled them up with his possessions, which wasn't much, just a few green and red tunics, brown pants and boots, fur and leather jackets, and a few leather-bounded books he had. He then ran out of his house to the place he had the rest of his possessions stored, the forge. He filled up the last two of the four bags with the rest of his books, charcoal pencils and his left-handed forge tool set before going back outside where his friend was waiting. 'Five minutes left' he thought as he hurriedly as he connected the bags to the saddle and jumped on after. He set off and took one, last, long look at the heap of rock he used to call home, 'no turning back Hiccup' he thought to himself as Toothless let out his famous roar, succeeding in both making a few close by Vikings drop to the floor and making his human smile.

'This is it' he thought, 'this changes everything.'


	3. Chapter 2

Hiccup and Toothless had been flying for what felt like an eternity before they found a small island to settle down on for the night, a few days if need be, and landed on it.

The island seemed to be abandoned of any civilisation, which was good, 'don't want any Vikings attacking me and Toothless, or the word getting out of Useless training a dragon, oh no, that could lead to wars. Well, probably not wars but we can't be too careful.'

They collected wood from the forest nearby for a fire and Hiccup collected some fish from a lake he found, using the technique Gobber had taught him since he couldn't use a fishing rod with only the one hand. All he had to do was carefully put his hand in the water and wait for a fish before stroking its tail with his thumb and index finger and then pull it out, really difficult at first, especially for an eight-year-old Hiccup, but he finally got the hang of it and used this technique to catch his food and avoid going to the Meade Hall, where the rest of the Vikings ate.

They found a clearing in the woods that was big enough to set a fire without it burning the forest down and starting building their fire to cook their food, well Hiccup's food anyway since Toothless dug right into his pile of raw fish, which Hiccup was not eating again, regurgitated or not.

After Hiccup finished his meal, he checked the bags on Toothless' saddle. "Fuck's sake" he muttered as he realised he hadn't packed a bedroll. Toothless crooned in question at his friend, causing Hiccup to place his hand on the dragon's head and reply to the silent question, "it's alright bud, just forgot to bring something to sleep on." Toothless responded by lighting the grass a foot away on a low burn before laying down and spreading his wings open so his stomach was shown. It took a few gestures towards Toothless' stomach with his head for Hiccup to get what he meant. He went over to the reptile and laid so his back was touching the black hide before Toothless wrapped his wings around the boy. They both fell asleep moments after.

Hiccup woke up but he wasn't where he was when he fell asleep. He was surrounded by thick fog and smoke that made it next to impossible to see or breath. "Toothless!" he tried to shout but the smoke quickly crawled through his mouth, disabling the ability to do so. He tried to look around for his friend, coughing and spluttering, but he was nowhere to be seen. He tried shouting again but he found his breath being taken away when the smoke and fog cleared away enough for him to see a giant, blue-grey dragon, roaring with all its might. He tried to run but his feet seemed to be stuck to the ground. He tried to look away but he was too transfixed. When he was finally able to rip his gaze away, he was able to see everything else on this island -volcano -THING. There were dead bodies with blood flowing out of them, combining to make a river into the ocean.

When Hiccup got a closer look at the bodies, he realised they were Hooligans. Not in the crazy way, no; they were Hooligans, Hairy Hooligans of Berk. He recognised a few faces that had not been mutilated; Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, Gobber, Stoick and others that had been there during Hiccup's childhood -if you could even call it that.

Childhood was supposed to be about innocence and adventure, Hiccup lost his innocence a long time ago and spent too much time locked in the forge or at home for adventure.

But the Hooligans Hiccup saw were... older, at least by three years. Did Hiccup sleep for three years? Most likely not but it wasn't possible for each and every one of the Hooligans to change so drastically over the period of half a day. He saw his reflection in Astrid's axe that she had loosely grasped in her hand before ripping it out of her hold and looking at the reflective metal closely. He had changed, and a lot at that. His hair was longer, shaggier, his eyes were greener than the dull grey they had been on Berk, his jaw sharper and his shoulders broader. He couldn't see much else in the reflection before he was ripped out of his state of awe at the older him by the roar of the dragon. But this roar didn't sound like it was coming from the mountain-sized dragon. It sounded like it was coming from another one, a roar that Vikings duck in fear to, a one of his friend.

Hiccup's eyes shot open and his chest heaved with heavy gulps of air. The roaring stopped and turned to crooning. He felt a warm nose press into his forehead as he came back to his senses. 'It was just a dream' he kept reassuring himself, 'but it felt so real like I was there! And what was that thing?!' He thought back to the giant dragon. It wasn't like anything he had ever seen before and it definitely hadn't attacked Berk before. Hel, if it did Berk wouldn't be a lump of rock but a pile of rubble! He tried to push it to the back of his mind, blaming it on his over-creative imagination but it kept coming back to his mind like opposite sides of a magnet and that magnet couldn't be flipped so it would repel from his mind.

He was once again pulled out of his thoughts by a noise by the shore, the sound of wood meeting land. He stood up and pressed himself against the tree closest to where he heard it and leant to the side to see what was happening. He could see Vikings climbing off of two longboats. Hiccup looked to the main sail of the first one and saw it was donned with a giant, black Skrill.

"Berserkers" he breathed as he looked to the next one. This one's sail had a red Viking helmet with curved horns and two spikes coming out of both sides, "...and Outcasts?"

Hiccup had never seen nor heard of both of these tribes working together, he actually thought they hated each other with Oswald completely disagreeing with the way Alvin ran his tribe and take over other tribes. Oswald's son, however, was a different story. Dagur was completely insane, 'a lunatic' in Hiccup's opinion, often using Hiccup as his source of... entertainment, which included knife throwing with the auburn haired boy as the target and drowning him. This caused him to become Snotlout's role model and sometimes he would join in.

Speaking of Dagur, the red-haired Viking jumped off the longboat and greeted the mountain if a man that was Alvin the Treacherous. Hiccup couldn't hear what they were saying over the pounding of his heart in his ears but the demonic glint in Dagur's eye suggested it wasn't good, 'well it's Dagur the Deranged, what were you expecting?' Hiccup thought to himself. He had to get out of there quickly, not off the island because they would most likely spot Toothless leaving and Hiccup on him, leading to the word spread of a dragon rider.

Hiccup took a step back and, the Gods obviously not being on his side, his foot land on a stick, causing it to snap and alert the Vikings. There was a deafening silence that seemed to go on for hours before he heard Alvin mutter, "it was probably an animal." Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief before turning around to sneak out.

When he turned he was not greeted by the path leading back to the clearing but by the deranged grin of the Berserker Viking. He was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and carried to where Alvin and a small group of Berserkers and Outcasts were setting up camp. He was thrown in front of the Outcast Chief and tried to scramble to his feet but Dagur placed his boot on his spine, "There is no time for probably, Alvin. You hear a sound, you investigate. If this was someone other than Stoick's runt, he could've killed us and your last words would've been 'it was probably an animal', get yourself together or we'll all die by sunrise!"

"Right, sorry Dagur" Alvin muttered, his head hung.

"And you!" he sneered, turning his attention to Hiccup, grabbing him by his collar and hauling him up to his feet, "what are you doing away from home? Does Daddy know you're here?"

"I could ask you the same thing" Hiccup spat back, sounding a lot more confident than he actually was.

Dagur's grin widened, if it was even possible, and stared Hiccup in the eye, "he won't need to know where I am or what I'm doing where he's going."

Hiccup eyes widened in realisation, "you didn't" he gasped.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't" he mused, shrugging his shoulders, "all that matters is that Oswald is no longer here, therefore he is no longer chief and that role has been passed down to yours truly. Now back to my question does Daddy know yo-" he was about to ask again before spotting his right hand that was gripping Dagur's hold on his shirt. "Oh! Ohohohoho" he laughed, "this is too good, little Hiccup has been labeled an outcast by his own father! Well, it's about time, you were supposed to be shipped out as a baby and were going to before you idiot of a mother stopped him. If only we did it after she was taken."

"Well at least someone wante- what do you mean taken? I was told she was killed by a dragon, a Monstrous Nightmare to be exact!" he yelled to the Berserker.

"Oh, no Hiccup. It looks like Daddy lied, she was taken by a Stormcutter when you were just a babe; she's only presumed dead but no body was found, she could still be out there for all we know, spreading her beliefs of peace between man and dragon!"

Hiccup was left speechless, his father had lied to him again. Not only was his mother not killed and didn't go like a Viking with dragon-killing pride but she believed in peace between Viking and dragon. He realised at that moment that he wasn't supposed to be like his father like he had been trying for fifteen years, but his mother, who had tried to understand dragons and thinking, knowing that there could be peace.

"Well," Dagur said, bringing him out of his thoughts, "Stoick wouldn't mind if I take this little runt."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Dagur."

The Berserker Chief rolled his eyes, "oh Odin, you sound like my father! 'Sign the treaty, Dagur. Leave that chicken alone, Dagur. Oh, put that axe down, Dagur!' One more word out of you and I'll gut you and feed you to the Scauldrons" he threatened, throwing him on the longboat and turning back to the Vikings. Hiccup droned out the conversation and put his bottom lip between his teeth and whistled a high pitched noise, too high for any human to hear, but not for dragons. This was proved seconds later when Toothless came bounding from the forest and towards his human.

He passed through the Vikings, kicking them out the way but he was pushed down by Alvin and his second-hand man, Savage. "A Night Fury!" Dagur exclaimed, "They do exist! Muzzle it and bring it to the ship, it may not be a Skrill but it's the next best thing!"

"No, Toothless!" Hiccup shouted from the longboat, struggling from the grip of the Berserker behind him.

"Toothless?" Dagur asked with a raised eyebrow as he stepped onto the boat, "it's yours?"

"Yes, he's mine!" Hiccup replied, watching his friend be dragged onto the Outcasts' boat, "you're not going to hurt him are you?"

"Well, I was planning on killing it and wearing its skull as a helmet." he shrugged as he jumped on the longboat, "But, I think I have other plans for Toothless."

Hiccup didn't know what he was going to do to his friend, but if anything, it wouldn't be good. He felt the hands of the Viking holding him move but before he could do anything, he felt the burn of ropes being tied and tightened around his hands. A feeling he knew all too well when the teens back at Berk decided to get a little more... creative with their beatings. He also felt his hair being pulled back roughly, causing him to grunt before a cloth was tied around his mouth to keep him from talking. He stumbled a bit when the boat started moving as he was never allowed on boats when the village went on fishing trips, so he never did get his sea legs. It wasn't long before the boy slipped into slumber.

Hiccup was slapped awake about an hour later when they arrived at their destination. With a new red mark on his left cheek, he glared at the back of the Berserker chief, who had started to walk off the longboat and down the gangplank. The Berserker behind him pushed him down the gangplank and onto the docks as he helplessly watched Toothless being dragged out of the opposite longboat by a handful of Outcasts.

The were both escorted -more like manhandled- to a dark corridor made of stone he could only assume was the dungeons. His theory was proven to be correct when he was thrown into a cold cell with the only light source being a small, barred window near the top of the cell. He watched them close the bars before turning to the Night Fury and dragging him to the cell opposite him before the hung him up like the butchers did to skinned boars back at Berk. With that thought in mind, an image flashed, one of Toothless being not only being hung like a dead boar but being a dead boar... dragon... you get what he means. He promised himself he would do anything to get him and his dragon out of here, no matter how long it takes.

The Vikings were long gone by the time Hiccup had managed to sleep, which was proven difficult when you had to face your best friend muzzled and hanging from the ceiling. Toothless seemed to have passed out from exhaustion due to him trying to escape his binds and the boy finally seemed to have found a "comfy" spot to sleep before the cell door swung open and Savage -Alvin's right-hand man- picked him up by the scruff of the neck and carried him out to the corridor, "Chief Dagur wants a word with you" he growled.

Hiccup sighed and went limp in Savage's hold, finding it pointless to fight back, 'hopefully, I can get out of here sooner than later.'


	4. Chapter 3

Hiccup was pulled by the scruff of the neck to a large, wooden door that rested at the end of the stone corridor. Savage pulled the door open and tossed the boy into the room. He got to take a quick look around: dusty shelves filled with books that Dagur most likely hadn't read lined the perimeter, a large bear-skin rug stretched across the middle of the floor and a table was settled on top of that. He didn't get to see much else before his attention was caught onto the red haired Viking who had started walking up to him.

"Well, well, well" he droned out, holding onto each 'e'. Dagur stopped in front of Hiccup, "well" he finished, looking down at his prisoner. "This is quite the surprise. I mean as Stoick the Vast's spawn I would've hoped you put up more of a fight. However, this is not the time to dwell on little facts now is it? I am right in assuming that you came to find out your first assignment?" he asked before chuckling, "of course I'm right, when haven't I been?"

Hiccup had to bite his tongue to keep himself from mentioning the fact he did not 'come', he was 'dragged here against his will'. "Your first assignment will be to clean out the stables" he grabbed Hiccup's jacket and whipped it off, "oh, and you won't be needing this," he said before throwing it in the fire.

The fifteen-year-old didn't dwell on the loss of his jacket for long before doing a mental fist pump, 'cleaning stables can't be too bad, I used to do it back at ho... Berk before I became a nuisance to the entire village and it was too 'unsafe' for us to have horses after the number of times I blew up the stables. In all fairness, that was the twins fault; they had found one of my and Gobber's inventions called dynamite and twins plus explosives equals disaster.' His mental smile seemed to falter into a frown as he realised most of this island was hallways and dungeons up to now with no sign of outside life, "what stables?"

Dagur didn't reply but instead walked over to one of the bookshelves. The boy was about to ask again but stopped when the Viking pulled on one of the books and the inside of it slid open, revealing another long corridor. Alvin, who Hiccup had not noticed, pushed him through the stone corridor and pushed open another door. Hiccup had to squint his eyes to adjust to the new light before he saw what was in front of him. There was a large area of land, perimetered by a large fence. The fence had wooden beams at each corner and a few in the middle to hold up the sharp, metal wires, 'barbed wires' Hiccup thought to himself, 'almost impossible to get through, I used to contemplate making a shield out of this so people would leave me alone or get their fist cut if they tried to punch me. Didn't work out very well.' Outside of the fence were patrols, each armed with a broadsword and armoured to the teeth. 'Well, as Fishlegs would say, chance of escaping are dwindling into single digits.'

He was dragged along to a pair of large, double doors that were unlocked and swung open before Hiccup was shoved to the ground on the other side of the door before they were slammed closed and re-locked. The boy stood up and wiped the mud from the floor of the back of his trousers. He brought them back round to his front, grimacing at the smell, 'that's not mud. That is not mud!' The boy quickly wiped his hands on the front of his grey leggings, leaving a brown smudge on each of his pant legs. "You new here?" a voice said, pulling Hiccup out of his thoughts. He quickly looked up to see a boy around his age leaning against the broom he was holding. The boy was pale and tall with ice blue eyes and white hair, which was unusual given his age. He was wearing a tattered white shirt that hung off one shoulder, light brown leggings that stopped halfway down his shins and wore no shoes, showing his bare, muddy feet.

"What?" Hiccup asked, not hearing the question.

The boy pushed up off the broom and asked again, "I said, 'are you new here'?" The question threw Hiccup off- well not really the question but the way he asked it, like it was an academy or town and not some... slave camp.

"Er.. yeah, yeah I guess you could say that."

"Good then I'm Jack, Jackson Overland Frost," he said, his hand outstretched for a handshake. When Hiccup didn't reply, only staring at the hand, Jack sighed, stretching his hand further towards him, "look, kid, I'm offering to be your friend here and trust me on this, in a place like this you're going to need friends."

Hiccup was stuck in momentary shock, 'friend? I haven't had a friend since I was what? seven? eight?' He shook the thoughts out of his head and took Jack's outstretched hand, "Hiccup, Hiccup Haddock."

Their hands separated and Jack threw him a broom, "so is there anything you can tell me about this place?" Hiccup asked, only having gone to Berserk a few times in his youth while Oswald was still chief.

"Where do I start?" Jack sighed, "When you're captured, they also manage to catch the person you hold dearest to your heart. You are placed opposite the cell of them so you can watch them suffer. Each day of work gets them food, a small meal of stale bread and cold meat as Emma describes it."

"Emma?"

"My little sister, they captured her when they saw I was trying to protect her. My mother managed to get out of it, she played dead after being slashed across the chest so I don't think she saw us being taken. She thought we were with the elder but they sent a few soldiers to ambush her hut, I don't think many of the kids made it out alive."

Jack took a deep breath, "you're sent to work on your first day here, only an hour or two after you've been captured and they see if you're 'fit' to work. If you are, they mark you a place where everyone can see it" he took a hand off his broom and stopped sweeping to lift up his bangs and show him the mark on the right side of his forehead. It was a small, blue, thin dragon that curved into the shape of a 's'. Hiccup recognised it instantly as the slave mark as he had read about it in books and some of his great-grandfather's scrolls. In every scroll and book that had any information about the mark in it always described it as 'the ultimate mark of shame in the Archipelago' and anyone who possessed the mark was instantly banished from the tribe to work a life of slavery. Jack put his hand back on the broom, his hair falling back into place.

"And if you aren't?" Hiccup asked, almost scared to hear the answer.

"We don't know, you never see them again along with the person they were captured with so my guess is that they kill them. It's worse if you refuse to work, they start by torturing the one you love until they're dead and then they move to you, it happened to one of my friends here. His name's Sandy, he refused to work, not knowing that his wife was being tortured every time he said no, bless his soul when he got back to his cell to find her dead, he was so scared that he lost his voice, and he couldn't use his powers to fight back and he was too weak with distraught to fight without them."

Hiccup furrowed his brows, "did you just say 'powers'?"

"Well, yeah, most people here have powers that could've stopped Dagur's ambushes and used to escaped ages ago. He captured us to make sure we can't use them to stop him and, from what I hear, he got some sort of witch, his grandmother I believe, to put some sort of anti-power spell around the camp so we couldn't use them to escape and warn nearby tribes that he's attacking almost every place he comes across. And without my powers, that things useless" he gestured his head to a large stick that curved at the top leaning against a wooden beam, staring at Jack like a taunt.

He was about to say something when the doors to the stables open and Alvin walked in with a whip clasped to his belt. Jack quickly looked down, broom sweeping faster and Hiccup decided to do the same due to the scared look on the white haired boy's face. The mountain-like Viking sneered at Jack and locked his eyes onto Hiccup before walking towards him. He grabbed the boy's chin, his thumb pressing into the old scar that rested on it, "you'll make a fine slave and outcast or not, I'll make sure Stoick sees what's become of his runt" he growled, spit flying out his mouth every few words. He pushed Hiccup's head so it was facing forward again and headed for the door.

Right before he reached them he spun round, whip in hand and slashed it down his back. Hiccup cried out at the burning of the leather ripping through his shirt and breaking his skin. His knees buckled and tears stung his eyes. He would've fallen if he didn't catch Jack mouthing the words 'stay up' frantically, so he grabbed onto the top of his broom and pulled himself up before his knees hit the ground.

"Sorry about that, I was about to warn you before he came in, it's their way of putting you in your place" Jack winced as the doors slammed shut, "I'd help you with the scar but the only water we're provided with is salt water so it wouldn't help very much. It'll hurt like a little bitch if we did use it, more than it already does."

Hiccup hissed as he stood up straighter, "it's fine, I'll be able to work with the pain, was there anything else I should know about this place?"

"Not really, you work and you and your loved one can eat, you don't and you and your loved one are punished, quite simple really. Oh and there's times where Alvin and Savage will get bored and they'll look for any fault from your stance to how quick you're working so look out for those ones. Here you're looking pale, I think there's some cloth I can use as a bandage back here."

Jack walked around to the back of the stable as Hiccup kept sweeping, wincing every so often when the scar began to burn and throb. "Here, sit" Jack commanded when he came back with a strip of linen. Hiccup sat on a pile of hay, hissing when a few stray pieces dug into his back. He lifted up his shirt as Jack quickly wrapped the material around his torso, careful not to get and pieces of hay stuck in it. "You just sit there and rest, we don't want you overworking after a strike like that."

The rest of the day felt like years but they were finally led back to their cells. Hiccup looked over to Toothless' cell to see him still hanging there, eating a small amount of fish that was being dropped through a hole in the top. A plate with bread and meat was dropped off at his cell a few minutes later and, as Emma had said, the bread was stale and the meat cold but he was just happy to have something in his stomach. He walked over to the soft bit of dirt he found earlier and tried to get comfy on it, gritting his teeth in pain whenever his back touched the floor or wall. He was finally able to be lulled into an uncomfortable sleep after his anvil-like eyelids drooped close. 'This is going to be a long and painful place to work'.


	5. Chapter 4

Hiccup woke up to a blinding pain in both his back and forehead. Sitting up, he reached for the scar forming on his back, flinching away when his finger made contact with it. 'Definitely, stings like a little bitch like Jack said'. He reached for his forehead and noticed through the pain that a part of it was raised. Hiccup traced the bump, noticing that it curved, almost like a 's'.

He gasped and pulled his hand back, not wanting to believe that it was true, not wanting to believe that he had already met his fate. He looked for something reflective and noticed a helmet that must have been dropped in the Berserker and Outcast's drunken night he had heard the commotion of when he was sleeping. Hiccup grabbed for the horns through the bars, looked into the rounded part that sat on the Viking's head and shook his head in disbelief and dropped the helmet with a clang when he saw his reflection. Just noticeable through the parting of his bangs on the right side of his forehead, he.. he..

He had been marked.

He had been marked as a slave. Like when he had lived in Berk, he had no more rights or value than a chair. Even if he did manage to somehow escape now, where would he go? If he went to any tribe, he'd be banished and used as a slave, there was no escaping the fact. And he couldn't go back to Berk, one: he was exiled so he'd be killed on sight if he was ever spotted in Berk waters and two: it would give pretty much all of the tribe another reason to taunt him. They'd be able to legally beat him, work him and kill him. It'd show Stoick that he couldn't live or survive on his own. It'd show Snotlout and the twins that he was right about him being useless.

He was nothing to anybody now, just a slave. Someone you work to death while you kick up your feet, whip in hand and cigar in mouth. There was no escaping the life of a slave, this mark would be with him forever, until his hairs greyed, until his back hunched, until his bones became weak and fragile... forever.

He didn't get much longer to ponder over his new life when the door to the cell opened and Savage -a very hungover Savage- stormed in a yanked Hiccup up by the arm, wobbling a bit on the spot at the boy's weight, which wasn't much. He seemed to be trying to form words before giving up and dragging Hiccup through Dagur's office and outside to the camp.

He, along with Jack and a tall man with grey hair, was put on food transportation and their job was to roll carts that were filled to the brim to the pig sty and feed the pigs. Why they had pigs he had no idea. Food maybe? The three of them were dragged along to an endless row of carts before being left there. "Is it me or did the carts look smaller far away?" Jack asked, staring at the carts, which went up to the grey haired man's, who had introduced himself as Eric Aster Bunny, nose.

"Aye," Eric replied in a funny accent that Hiccup had never heard before. Hiccup only nodded mutely, still in shock from his discovery of the mark that morning. Jack patted his shoulder his shoulder sympathetically before grabbing the handles and pulling the cart back. Eric and Hiccup did the same, Hiccup almost collapsing under the weight and very nearly crying out as it stretched his back, his scar stinging. The three of them managed to turn them around before pushing them to the pig sty on the other side of the camp. The one trip had them all sweating, their shirts drenched down the collar.

Deciding that taking his shirt off would leave him as a vulnerable target and leave more damage if one was to hit him with a whip, Hiccup rolled up his sleeves to try and cool down a bit, which was pretty much impossible in the sweltering heat of Berserk Island. 'Oh I would give anything to be back in Berk's cold summers' Hiccup thought and it was true, he'd rather be in Berk dodging arrows in the freezing cold than working his arse off in the red hot heat.

Pouring the contents of the carts into the trough seemed to take all of the energy Hiccup had left in him and all he wanted to do was collapse onto the ground and go to sleep. The whoosh of a whip and the cry of a prisoner behind him brought him back to his senses that maybe it wasn't such a good idea as he first thought. The three prisoners ran back to the rest of the carts with the strength that they had remaining to collect the next three carts.

After the third trip, they were all trying to stay on their feet and Eric had ripped off the sleeves to his tunic. Hiccup looked back to the line of carts and even with the nine they had moved, they had barely made a dent in it, falling asleep was looking like a tempting idea at the moment. The three of the jolted upright when they were splashed with cold water. At first, he was relieved but then saw the other two gritting their teeth in pain. It only took a second to realise why as the water dripped under his shirt and make-shift bandage and into his wound.

Saltwater. Obviously, it hit Jack and Eric first as they would have more marks on their back. Hiccup tried not to cry out in pain or let the tears threatening to drop pour out as the water crawled through the scar and into his back. The pain subsided slightly and the three got back to work, grunting at the still stinging pain in their backs.

The rest of the day went like this, push cart, fill trough, run back, repeat. It sounded simple enough but the blinding pain that came with the salt water that was thrown at them every once and a while to keep them awake slowed down the process as they had to stop and grit their teeth to subside the stinging in their wounds. It was well into the night when they were down to the last three, 'seriously, how many pigs do these guys eat? Aren't the Vikings pig enough for them' he thought bitterly, filling up the last trough as he watched a guard walk past a sneer at them like they were the pigs in the sty. Hiccup wanted to sneer back but feared it would result in another lashing, so he bit the inside of his cheek to stop him from doing anything rash.

Once they were done, they walked back to their cells, Hiccup noticing something on the way. It was a room with its door ajar. He quickly looked through the door from where he was stood, a plan quickly forming in his head and a smirk appearing on his face.


	6. Chapter 5

Berk seemed to have forgotten all about the previous day's events with only a few of the Vikings still fuming with how the runt pretty much got away with his traitorous actions. The chief, along with his brother-in-law walked out of the doors to the Mead Hall, Spitelout wearing a smile from ear to ear as he practically skipped down the stairs to his house. Stoick ran a hand down his face and sighed before walking down the steps, running into his long time friend on the way, "er...hello Stoick" Gobber said with forced enthusiasm.

"Good morning Gobber" Stoick glumly replied. They both walked down the stairs together, the chief sighing a total of three times before they reached the bottom.

Gobber finally asked the question plaguing his mind, "This is about Hiccup... isn't it?"

Instead of getting the calm answer he was hoping for, Stoick rounded on the bald blonde, shoving a meaty finger in his face, "never mention that name in my presence ever again, you hear me Gobber?" he whispered in a dangerous tone before turning back around and storming off. Gobber's heart sunk at the fact of Stoick trying to forget that Hiccup was his son, Hell, that Hiccup even existed. Gobber was one of the very, very few people who missed the boy, even if it had even been a day without him; he wasn't sure if he could be without the boy's sarcastic comments and crazy inventions for the rest of his life without the short, auburn haired, slightly crazy lad in his forge.

The Viking hobbled towards his shop and walked inside, only to be met by the slight ringing in his ears caused by the silence of the shop. The fire wasn't crackling. The water wasn't hissing along with the cooling down of a freshly made sword. The swipes of charcoal on paper weren't coming from behind the curtain. The tapping of the small hammer wasn't filling the shop as the lad made another one of his inventions. The only sound Gobber could hear was the small splash on the ground and the sniff of his nose.

It was torture.

He walked over to the wall that had been covered in sketches of new weapon designs. He lifted his hook and lifted one of the drawings of a sword eight-year-old Hiccup did -though it looked like someone with amazing skill drew it- and looked at the picture beneath it. It was one Bucket had painted of the both of them eight years ago; Gobber had his hook hand around the boy's shoulder and Hiccup was looking at his second father, both of them wearing big grins on their face. It was painted when Hiccup was the happy little boy bouncing through the village, greeting tribe members with a smile...right before everything started to go downhill for the lad.

After that, Gobber never saw a smile as big as the one painted on Hiccup's face. He wanted to help the boy when he learned about the bullying, but Gobber was afraid that the advice he gave him only made Hiccup feel worse about himself. He turned back around, the drawing fell over the painting as Gobber walked over to the pile of weapons that had been left for him to repair.

As he got to work, he noted that only one hammer striking metal send a clang through the shop. Only one weapon got repaired at a time. And only one anvil was being used. Not two.

On the outside of the forge, a Jorgenson strutted to the window, hammer in hand, "Hey! Gobber! I need these bolts tightening, now!"

"Eh?" Gobber asked as he stopped hammering at the sword.

He caught the roll of the boy's eyes before he repeated himself, "what you got wax in your ears? Bolts! Tighten! Now!"

"Oh. Put them with the others" Gobber waved his hook before turning back to the sword.

"I don't think you heard me, I want them tightening now!" he tried to be intimidating, but ended up looking like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

"And I don't think you heard me Snotlout, I said 'put the with the others'" Gobber spat through gritted teeth.

Snotlout looked to be contemplating what to say to retaliate before grinning and leaning against a wall, "I don't know if you've heard Gobber, but I'-"

Gobber cut the lad off, "Oh I heard alright, I heard your dad squealing about it as he skipped passed my shop looking like he'd just been handed the weight of every Viking in gold but in my shop, you're little 'advantage' doesn't get you anywhere. Now I'll say it one last time before I refuse you service, put. it. with. the. others."

The Jorgenson huffed and finally put his hammers with the rest of the weapons before stomping out. Gobber rolled his eyes at his behaviour and turned back to his work, 'teenagers' he thought bitterly.

'Ugh, adults' Snotlout thought as he stormed out the forge. His anger quickly fled when he spotted the village's blonde beauty sitting outside of her house, sharpening her axe with a whetstone. He smirked and strutted up to her, "hey Astrid" he greeted and he leant against the wall of her house.

Astrid stopped sharpening her axe but kept the whetstone on the metal, "what Snotlout?" she asked through gritted teeth, but he didn't seem to notice this.

"Well I have had fantastic news about the future of Berk" he informed as his smirk grew.

The blonde rolled her eyes, she knew what he was about to say as she had seen his father skipping down the street but decided to play along, "oh yeah, well why don't you take your 'fantastic news' somewhere else?"

"You see Beautiful, this also affects your future."

Astrid had to fight to keep her dinner in her stomach at the sound of the nickname, "yeah no shit, I do live in Berk after all."

"No Babe, think affects your future, my future, our future."

She caught quickly onto what he was saying and calmly set her axe and whetstone down and stood to face the boy. "Snotlout, there is no 'us' and there is no 'our future', get that through your thick skull," Astrid told the boy.

"Oh come on Astrid, now that I'm heir, I can have any girl I want and I want a certain blonde" Snotlout grinned.

"There is one flaw in your plan Snotlout, you see, my future consists of me becoming a shield maiden, you know what that is?" she paused and the boy nodded, "good, it has been the dream of every female on my mother's side. However, they either fell in love or were stuck in an arranged marriage and it normally put a stop to that plan. The reason for this is that their fathers didn't know or care about their plan to become a female warrior. Lucky for me, my dad both knows about and respects my dream and, as a shield maiden, I am not expected to marry, which I will not. Your new position doesn't get you anywhere closer to marrying me, no matter how much gold you offer."

Astrid picked up her axe and left a dumbstruck Snotlout outside as she walked into her house and slammed the door shut. Shaking himself out of his trance and stormed off grumpily, he was not giving up.


	7. Chapter 6

Hiccup was put to work at the stables, this time tending to the horses. "Y'know that room Jack?" Hiccup asked, brushing one of the horse's coats, "the one with all the weapons?"

"I've seen it a few times yes," Jack replied, "why?"

"Do you know who works there?"

"I'm not sure," Jack admitted, furrowing his brows, "if I were to take a guess, I'd say it's the people they've completely broken, the ones they know won't fight back anymore."

Hiccup clicked his tongue in thought a few times, unconsciously stopping his motions, causing the horse to push its nose against him. He started brushing the coat again, "you know anyone who they've broken?"

Both Hiccup and Jack tried to think of anyone who fit the description, "...Sandy" they realised in sync.

Once the two were done with their work, it was already night. Walking out the stables, Jack spotted a blonde man dragging his feet out of the room Hiccup had spotted a few days before. The two set off towards him once Jack confirmed it to be Sandy.

"Hey, Sandman" he whispered once they were close enough. The man jumped and spun on his heel with an angry look on his face, grasping his book tightly. "We need your help" Jack explained, causing the look to fade. Sandy hesitated -most likely knowing the shit they would get themselves in if they were ever caught- before nodding, to show he was listening. "Hiccup," Jack explained, pointing to his friend, "has a plan."

Sandy opened is book and took a charcoal pencil out of his pocket, 'What's that got to do with me?'

"Well, we kinda need someone who has access to the weapons," Hiccup told him.

The blonde sighed before scribbling down another note, 'Fine, what's the plan?'

"First, I need to ask something. Do you just sort out the weapons or do you make them as well?" Hiccup asked.

Sandy flipped the page of his book and wrote his answer down, 'I just sort out the weapons, a man named Nick makes them.'

"Okay so maybe we can get North to help" Jack hoped.

'Speak of the Devil' Sandy wrote.

The door suddenly opened and a burly man with a long, white beard stepped out, "what's going on here?" he boomed in a thick accent, causing the three to press a finger to the lips and shushing him. The man's mouth formed an 'o', "ooh, secret, well I'll be off."

"Wait, North" Jack quickly said, "we need your help with this."

Hiccup started explaining the plan to him, "we need you to smuggle a few weapons to us, nothing too big, maybe a knife we can fit in a boot or the inside of our jackets without it being seen by guards."

North nodded, "okay lad, it'll be hard to get it done straight away and don't be expecting a miracle. Dagur and his little...minions expect a certain amount of weapons a day but knives should be easy enough to do quickly in between each one without it getting too suspicious."

"Good, once we have the weapons, I'll explain the rest of the plan, I have a brief idea of what we can do but I need to work out small details. But remember one thing" Hiccup explained, "if we're escaping, we're bringing everyone with us, no man left behind."

The three nodded to the boy before heading to their cells.


	8. Chapter 7

Hiccup's plan was quickly put into action, North started working twice as hard to make twice the amount of weapons, only sending half to the berserkers and outcasts. Every night for the past week, Hiccup and Jack had been collecting weapons from the barrel Sandy had hidden their knives and daggers in and passing them out to any slave they could without getting caught; giving strict rules about hiding the weapon completely.

Jack made sure that everyone that could have a weapon, had a weapon before picking two daggers and hiding the straps on the inside of jacket he had requested and Hiccup hid two knives in each of his boots, hiding the handle with his trouser leg.

During the week North was making weapons, Hiccup was coming up with the rest of the plan. He had a brief idea of what he wanted to do: "lead the guards to a secluded place where some of the slaves will be waiting. Once the guard was there, he would be...killed." The last part made Hiccup nauseous as he used to be the boy that wouldn't hurt a fly and now here he was, planning to kill an army of men with very little chance of success or ...it had to be done.

It was the first day since the plan had been set ut before them and now all they needed was to execute the commands given. Jack, Hiccup and Eric had been set to work in Dagur's office with one guard on watch. Hiccup and Jack looked to each other as they were straightening the books, Hiccup having done a once over of the guard's armour. The auburn haired boy scratched the side of his neck, silently telling Jack that his neck was a vulnerable spot and could be easily struck. Jack looked to Eric and repeated the action, receiving a small nod.

Hiccup dropped a book, causing the guard to scowl and walk in his direction, whip slashing. Before a strike could land on him, Eric covered his mouth, muffling any shouts and stabbed him in the side of the throat. The muffled shouts grew louder for a second before slowly getting quieter as the guard's eyelids drooped closed. Eric dragged the body to a broom cupboard and hid it near the back, hid by the cleaning supplies.

"Should be a while since they find him, hopefully, they never will cause they barely use this cupboard and all of us know what's going on" Eric informed as he got back to work after cleaning any blood that got onto his hand on a clean rag.

Hiccup nodded, eyeing the cupboard. He didn't feel grief or guilt like he expected to after the first kill. He actually felt...relieved. Relieved that they were one less guard away from escaping. Part of him wanted to feel guilty that he'd just seen a man murdered in cold blood but a bigger part of him knew he deserved it for everything he'd done to anyone in this camp.

The next few days went like this; it helped that the large amount of guards allowed the suspicion level to stay low. However, the number of guards were quickly depleting as more slaves joined in on the plan and it was only a matter of time before someone found out what was going on. Jack had told him "not to worry" and that "those numbskulls can't even walk in a straight line never mind think in one." It didn't ease Hiccup's stress though and decided that, sooner or later, they were going to have to attempt to escape from this Hel Hole.

This worry was what led to Hiccup's current predicament of him pacing back and forth in his cell, "relax" he heard Jack's voice say, "they won't figure out, they can't even count without using their fingers." He remembered Jack's smirk as he made fun of the men that had tortured him. The boy got that it must've felt good to mock them as their most recent kill bled out under the pile of hay but he knew it was no time for jokes, they had to stay focused on the goal ahead of them or they'd trip and never make it to the finish line.

'Finish line'. Those two words brought memories of the lump of rock he used to call home to the surface of his mind. Another way Hiccup used to embarrass himself would be at Berk's yearly Thaw fest. It was the day that Hiccup dreaded as his cousin always flew to the top of the scoreboard and never missed a chance to gloat. He had once had the obnoxious chant stuck in his head for a month after a particularly bad Thaw fest were Snotlout was the one to win every event, 'Snotlout, Snotlout, OI OI OI.' It didn't help when his uncle joined in with his unnaturally high voice, giving Hiccup a migraine.

Shaking the once embarrassing and now irritating thoughts out of his head, he set his mind back on track before scowling and nodding to himself, 'this week' he thought, looking over to the once threatening night fury, 'we'll be out by the end of this week, I promise Toothless.'


	9. Chapter 8

Hiccup had never been this frightened in his life. His feet tripped, his shoes long since been discarded, and the hidden stones made their presence known by slicing at his bare feet. His arm had long since lost all feeling due to the tight grip dragging him. His shirt had been all but destroyed and his torso had been left bare, newly lashed whip marks pouring with warm, sickly blood.

The boy tightly squinted his eyes as the rays of light hit him. His back was burning as he was thrown across the gravel, grains invading his wounds. The attention of the other slaves was quickly caught and they all looked to the centre, thinking the same thing. This was bad.

This was very very bad.

The familiar burning of ropes wrapped themselves around his wrists; his toes could barely scrape the ground below. Through his blurred vision, he could see a black-bearded man being handed a whip- Alvin.

"Everybody!" He heard, "this scum," Alvin pointed the whip at Hiccup's hanging form, "has been plotting against Dagur."

Alvin slowly moved to the back of the boy, "against all of us. It may not seem it but plotting against us has risked a lot of lives. Mine. Yours. Everyone's here. Everyone's life has been put in danger...because of him" at the word "him" Alvin lashed the whip.

Hiccup screamed, his vision darkening. His flesh ripped open, wet blood joining dry. Another lash, another scream. Hiccup knew these wounds would never heal; sure they would scar but the pain would always haunt him. The pain of leather ripping at his skin, shredding his back.

Hiccup stiffened at the third lash, muffling a yell he so wanted to let the world hear. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't give Alvin any more satisfaction.

After the fourth, everything had stopped. Hiccup faintly heard a grunt and could clearly hear the yells following. He abruptly fell and looked up. Jack offered his hand before turning to the raging guards and pulling out his second knife. He handed it to Hiccup, his weapon being left in his boot.

Hiccup had never killed before, he had witnessed the death of both dragon and Viking but none had been at his hand. But at that moment, his rational side took control. 'This is the right thing to do' he thought with a scowl as he spotted his target, a large guard barreling towards him, 'these bastards deserve it.'

Running would cost him more energy than he had so he waited for the guard to reach him. Hiccup dodged the attack and stabbed the guard's neck.

Hiccup gasped in pain at the stretch and Jack noticed in an instant. "North!" The white haired boy shouted. The man was there as fast as Berk's weather changed, lifting up the limp boy. "Toothless," Hiccup mumbled, "get Toothless."

Jack nodded, running to the cell the dragon was kept in. Minutes later, the black reptile had been let loose, shooting any and all guards with his plasma blasts.

North sliced with one of his two swords, his other hand tightly holding Hiccup. Toothless was guarding his back, protecting his rider. The rest of the slaves joined the fight in hope for their freedom. Unfortunately, not all would get that freedom.

Sandy had stolen a guard's whip, lashing at the foes. He silently screamed as an arrow pierced his back before dropping to the ground, limp.

Lifeless.

"Don't worry Hiccup," North reassured him, "he's with his wife now. He would rather die trying escape his life than live it any longer."

But Hiccup wasn't listening. The loss of blood had lead to a loss of conscious and he lied limp over North's shoulder.

But he would not die. He would not give anyone the satisfaction.

He would escape.


	10. Chapter 9

At first, Hiccup thought he'd died. 'Serves me right' he thought bitterly to himself, 'thinking I deserved any other life than a slave, a punching bag...a life of someone so useless.' Maybe that's why he couldn't see anything, he didn't deserve to go to Valhalla and Hel refused to have him so he was stuck here.

In an endless darkness.

But then he heard voices. Voices he found faintly familiar. And sounds. Sounds of a crackling fire and a softly blowing wind. And...and crooning. "Toothless?" he murmured, coughing when his dry throat made itself evident. Hiccup tried to move but his bones felt like lead, refusing to allow him to move with a stabbing pain shooting through his body before redirecting to his head. He felt like he'd faint again if he attempted to move anymore than a millimeter so he crumpled back down onto the furs.

Wait...furs? Last he remembered he slept on a patch of mud in a cell. And Toothless was hung like a butchered boar. Hiccup was proven otherwise when he felt his friend's snout pressing into his lead-filled chest. Hiccup moaned in pain and he felt the dragon croon in apology and backed away.

Rubbing the pained spot, Hiccup felt tightly wrapped linen around his torso. Groaning, Hiccup opened his eyes, although difficult as they seemed determined to be as heavy as anvils, and made another futile attempt to sit up. Luckily this time, a pair of hands lifted him and his vision started to clear.

He could now see that Jack was the one to lift him and the other two, North and Bunny, were sat staring into the dancing flames of the fire. "The others went to seek shelter" Jack answered the unasked question, "or at least went to scout the area. We decided to stay with you to make sure you were okay."

Hiccup nodded, "and the prisoners?" he asked, his voice grating at his throat.

"Safe" North answered, "they went with the others, they're hoping to find boats abandoned along the shore. The pieces of driftwood could only get us so far and we only have so long before they come to find us, if they do at all."

"What happened Hiccup?" Jack asked after a moment of silence.

"I could ask you the same thing," Hiccup replied, not remembering much before his blackout. "They overheard me," he explained, "I have a habit of...talking to myself. When you grow up with no friends you start searching for company and it normally leads to you having conversations with yourself," Hiccup groaned, burying his head in his hands, "I don't think they expected there to have been an actual plan to escape but they love reasons to give us a beating. I had been telling myself that I'd escape and before I could tell myself we'd all escape I was being dragged outside. The rest you saw."

Telling them this brought a pain to Hiccup's chest as memories of his childhood flooded to the front of his mind; trying to fit in, trying to help, trying to be one of them, trying to please them, trying to be the son Stoick thought he deserved, trying to be the cousin Snotlout wanted, trying to be the friend the rest of the teens casted him away for not being, trying to be the man Astrid deserved, just...

Trying.

He was sick of trying. He shouldn't have had to try for these types of things. He should've been accepted by his tribe without trying. He shouldn't have had to try to be someone he's not when his tribe should've seen all the good things that were there about Hiccup, instead of focusing on the things that were missing.

But, alas, he wasn't accepted and his fifteen years of trying went unnoticed. Just like everything else he did: the crying, the screaming, the years and years of him slowing breaking and being teared apart.

And he didn't think he could be repaired. But hopefully, his time...or life away from Berk could piece him back together, even if not completely.

"Aye we saw it alright," Eric piped up, "we saw how brutal those bastards could be, they...they killed Sandy."

"They've killed before Bunny" North said, "and they'll kill again, it's in their blood to spill other's blood. Sandy was just another unlucky soul."

"Unlucky soul?! He was my best friend North!" Bunny yelled, "and they killed him."

"They'd kill all of us if they'd had the chance!" Jack exclaimed, "consider yourself lucky! You had someone to live for and how do you think Tooth would've reacted if we'd told her you had died?! Sandy had no one! His wife had been tortured and killed, he lost the ability to utter a single syllable and we both know he lost the will to live! He knew dying was the only way to make himself happy again."

Eric quietened down, his scowl fading before he sat back down. "We'll wait until Hiccup can move again before we catch up with the others."

Hiccup protested immediately, "no no, I'm fine, I can ride on Toothless if need be, I don't want to be the reason we drag behind and put us in more danger than necessary."

The three nodded and hoisted him onto the dragon's back after slinging the furs over it. The saddle had been stolen among with his possessions in the bags so it'd be a while until he could fly again so finding a boat stable enough to hold a dragon of Toothless' weight was necessary.

Jack grabbed his curved staff and Hiccup watched in amazement as he hovered a few inches off the ground before shooting above the trees. The boy wondered what it was like, to be able to fly without a dragon. To have the freedom to leave whenever he wanted; the Hooligans would've happily seen him off.

And he would've happily left.

But a croon created a feeling of shame in himself at his thoughts. He could never fly without Toothless and he didn't want to; they completed one another.

Jack dropped back to the ground, "this way," he said, pointing north east. "They're heading back towards us but we'll meet them halfway to help them find something that could help us."

The four started heading towards the rest of their group, shouting for them so they knew they were coming towards them. Hiccup saved the shouting for the three whose throats didn't feel like they were on fire. He felt like he could pop his vocal chords if he shouted like they were doing.

In the distance, Hiccup could hear voices of the rest of the group. He tried straining his ears but the action shot a bolt of pain to his head, specifically the right side of his head, where his tattoo had engraved itself forever. "We've found something!" Hiccup could hear a female voice shout, but he couldn't place a finger on which of them it was, "a boat! A boat!"

At that, the three shot off, Toothless quickly following. They all turned back towards the spot they found it and led them towards the boat. The boat belonged to Vikings, made obvious by the round shields lining the sides; only Vikings used round shields in this part of the Archipelago. Romans, Vikings' worst enemies, used rectangular shields and they didn't tend to display them on the sides of their boats.

From the naked eye, the boat would've looked brand new but, from what Hiccup could remember about his classes as a ten year old, the boat had been in that spot for a good few months and, hopefully, the occupants would be long gone.

Jack flew above the deck, giving it a one over before landing, claiming it safe. He pushed the gang plank over the edge of the boat, allowing the rest to board.

"So where to?" Bunny asked from the bottom of the plank, "I'll meet you there." Hiccup didn't understand what he meant until he tapped his foot a few times and opened a gaping hole in the earth.

"No, you need to help row Eric, you're one of the strongest of us," Jack told him, causing Bunny to huff and tap his foot again, closing the tunnel, "plus, if we use North's globe on the boat, we'll all end up in the same place safely and if you use your tunnel then you might get lost, they're not always reliable. Especially in a part of the archipelago we don't know."

Bunny nodded, quite chuffed at the strong comment but slightly offended that he called his tunnels "unreliable".

North turned to Hiccup, as did the rest of the group, "Hiccup, lad, you know these waters better than anyone. You know tribes we should avoid and which ones would help," North told him, "so..."

"Where to?"


	11. Chapter 10

It had been one of the worst Gobber had ever seen. Without the lad to help man the shop, weapons were piling higher and higher. The pile increased faster than Gobber could work, both his hands- the one still there and the none existent one -had cramped from how fast he could work.

"C'mon Gobber!" shouted one of the impatient Vikings as they dodged the fire shot at them by the flying beasts.

"I'm trying Spitelout!" Gobber bellowed back, "I can't get very much done with one blasted hand!"

"You've never had problems before!" Phlegma the Fierce yelled as she picked up her newly repaired(ish) axe.

"That was when Hiccup was around! He not only had two hands but a way to tell when a weapon was perfectly repaired, balanced or was in need of replacing!"

It was the first raid since Hiccup had been outcasted and it was terrible. The shop was more hectic than ever, more Vikings were injured due to their lack of weapon and to top it all off, it had been viewed as all Gobber's fault.

When they had finally managed to get the dragons to vamoose, they all, almost as in sync, turned towards the one armed, one legged Viking.

"What was that Gobber?" Stoick asked coldly as he pushed towards him.

Gobber seemed to hesitate before steeling himself, "that," he said with the upmost confidence, "was a raid without your son in the shop."

Stoick scowled, "what on Midgard has that runt got to do with how disastrous that raid was?" Snotlout cut off his uncle.

"Because Snotface, that runt was the only with two hands and the ability to work as quick as a Night Fury with weapons," Gobber growled. "Who do you think made them for Thor's sake?"

Gobber realized he had made a terrible mistake when they all looked at their weapons in disgust, and the ones that didn't have a weapon looked at another person's. Within a millisecond, there was an uproar of fury; people stacked their weapons on a wheelbarrow and charged into his shop, getting rid of any weapon they could find, even Gobber's butter knife.

"No! Hey! I need that! Put that hammer down Gustav!" were the yells coming from the blacksmith as they raided his shop like dragons.

When they had emptied his shop, the twins pushed the barrow until they hit a cliff. The two lifted their spears- both made by the former apprentice -and yelled the Hooligan war cry, the rest of the tribe following, before throwing them like javelins into the ocean. They tipped the wheelbarrow and watched as, like a waterfall, the weapons fell into the ocean with a splash and a roar of cheers followed.

Astrid had held back, cradling her beloved axe in her hands. The scratches were like scars, proof of how much she used it. How much she trained with it.

How far she had come with it.

Was she ready to give that up just because Hiccup made it? Gobber was right, she mused as she weighed it in her hands, he did have a knack for getting things perfectly balanced. The light axe made for quick work of her enemy with a lot of easy momentum. Would Gobber be able to make one as good as he did?

She looked up to expectant eyes of the other teens, even the older ones. Hel, even Gustav was looking at her as if she'd snap the axe like a twig off her knee.

She guessed he would have to as she lobbed the weapon off the cliff. Time seemed to slow down, as if fate was letting her take it back. Allowing her to reach back out and undo her mistake. But she didn't. She watched in dismay as the axe spun its final spins.

But instead of lodging itself into the bark of her tree with a satisfying clunk, it hit the water with a sickening splash.

The cheers died down when a voice spoke out, "what are you gonna fight dragons with now you numpties?" Gobber asked the crowd.

"It's just been a raid Gobber," Stoick reasoned, "they won't be back for another few weeks, you can sort us out some weapons by then."

It wasn't a question. They all had overestimated Gobber's abilities. He couldn't make weapons for everyone by the time the next raid came along. The crowd separated and went to repairing the damages.

He wasn't even sure if he could make weapons by the time the next dragon raid came along. He was positive that he couldn't hire an apprentice by then; no one wanted the job, especially since it used to belong to an outcast. All the teenagers, even the kids, wanted to be part of the fire brigade before upgrading to dragon killer when they passed dragon training.

Astrid had been given the privilege to kill the dragon, as in all fairness she was runner up in her class. The head was proudly displayed in the great hall, along with the rest of the Monstrous Nightmares that had been killed during training, with her name underneath engraved in a silver plate, representing second place.

She was not down hearted as she was not the only one with a silver plate. Many teens came undone under stress and pressure and decided to drop out over the years before killing the Nightmare. Or some died before they got the chance to face the dragon (a less common occurrence as the fight took place the day after selection).

But there was one thing Gobber was absolutely sure of:

He lived on an island of idiots.


	12. Chapter 11

"If it's any help Hiccup," Jack smiled, "we managed to nick this back." North opened his coat and handed Hiccup his satchel.

Hiccup smiled in thanks and dragged out a book that held maps, which were of use since North need to know where he was going to use the "globe" correctly. But who to go to? He turned to a page in the center of the book, labeled "Blood Feud Table".

The Outcast had been crossed off way before he opened the book, they had a blood feud with everyone due to attitude problems. He focused more on the arrows leading off of the Hooligans to find a suitable island.

"Only three arrows?" he said to himself, "wow, thought they'd be fighting with everyone." He looked at the feud before deciding on one.

"Alright everyone," he said, his throat a lot less sore after a cup of water, "we're going to the Bog."

"No thanks," Bunny declined, "went earlier, should be fine for another few hours," he said, eliciting a few laughs.

"No," Hiccup chuckled, "the Bog-Burglars island."

Bunny made a small, embarrassed "oh" before turning to North, "well, you heard the man." Everyone took two oars each and started rowing as North threw up a crystal clear ball- after look at the maps -that then expanded into a circle for the boat. In the circle, Hiccup could see a different part of the ocean, cleaner waters and distant islands.

They all rowed, all except Jack's little sister and Hiccup's dragon, who sat playing with each other on the deck. When they crossed the portal, Hiccup could not see the island they had set out for.

Seeing the worry on his face, North explained that he had sent them a few mile away so any Bogs watching the water would not see them appear as if from nowhere. "It should be that way," he said, pointing west.

After turning towards the designated direction, they set sail for the island. They had been rowing for a good few hours (or at least what felt like it) before they hit shore. It had been sunrise when they had set off and now the sun was high in the sky.

Hiccup decided to go first, telling all of them to stay there until he came back. The Bogs knew Hiccup as one of their heir's friends so he shouldn't have had a problem working something out with them.

He also wouldn't be surprised if news had traveled about him being disowned and outcasted and they downright refused to have him, but he could hope.

He walked along the beach and met with a woman who had come to investigate the boat. Trying to hide his hand and his forehead. "I...er...come in peace?" he stammered.

"Oh yeah?" she asked, "what you hiding behind your back?"

Hiccup looked up at the woman, she had arms and legs like tree trunks and a faint mustache on her upper lip. "N-nothing, why would I b-be hiding anything?"

He had to give it to her, for all she knows he could be hiding a dagger behind his back and he probably didn't look very trust worthy. He held his hand out in front of him, hoping he can prove his innocence and hide his scar in her handshake before hiding it behind his back again without suspicion.

"I'm-" he started, only to be cut off.

"I know who you are," she sneered, "you're Stoick's lad, Burp."

"Er...no, it's Hiccup."

"Oh, well it was close enough, what do you want any way?" she finally asked.

"I'm glad you asked, I'd wish to speak to your Chief," he explained.

She looked him over, "what about?"

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to keep that between me and her, and she can tell her tribe later if she wishes. I'd like her to hear it first," he said hopefully.

She grunted before leading him to, what he assumed, was Bertha's house. She pounded on the door, "Chief, there's some little twerp here who wishes to speak with you."

The door flew open and instead of the bulking frame of the Bog's Chief, they saw the lithe frame of her daughter. "Hiccup!" she shouted in recognition, "come in! Come in, Mom's just over here. Mom! Hiccup's here to speak to you!" she yelled as she slammed he door shut.

Bertha offered Hiccup a seat before taking one of her own, "so what brings you here lad?"

Instead of answering, Hiccup brought his right hand onto the surface of the table. Bertha gasped when her eyes hit the scar embedded in his hand. Camicazi gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before her eyes met the blue scar he'd desperately been trying to hide, at least for now.

She pushed his hair back before he could protest. Eyes wide, Bertha cleared her throat and her daughter let his hair fall back over the tattoo.

After a moment of shocked silence, Hiccup sadly said, "if-if you'd like me to go I understand, I thought I'd just come here for help since I wasn't going to get it off my own tribe. And-and I know you don't normally accept males into your tribe, and I'm not asking you to," he quickly added, "we just need a place we can get back on our feet, keep our head down for a while."

As Hiccup started to miserably rose from his seat, Bertha lifted her hand to stop him, "we?"

"The rest of Dagur's slaves."

The Chief's eyes widened as he mentioned the red head's name. She knew how brutal the bastard was and she felt a sudden wave of sympathy for the lad, he was only fifteen and to have the rest of his life taken away from him? And what he would've went through. Neither wanted to think about it.

"There's a house that hasn't been used in years, the owner had a big family but she died and the rest of her family moved out, it might be a squeeze depending on how many you have but I think we could make it work," Bertha finally said.

Hiccup grinned from ear to ear, "really?"

"Really," Bertha replied, both her and Camicazi wearing twin grins. Hiccup bolted out the door with a thank you and ran towards the boat.

The rest of the ex-slaves were as happy and excited as he was as they ran back towards the Chief's house, where Bertha was waiting for them outside. She led them to their new home.

Home.

It had been a while since he could call anywhere home because home wasn't where you were born. Or where you lived.

It was where you are accepted and, even though he was no woman, an Outcast and slave, he had been accepted, along with the rest of his friends and, to him, that meant he was home.


End file.
